Often tedious but sometimes fascinating

books:

	• Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon Daniel C. Dennett Penguin (Non-Classics), 2007 - 464 pages average customer review:based on 152 reviews view larger image
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A Very Human Book

What to add to the many excellent reviews already posted?

Not long before I read BREAKING THE SPELL I had lunch with a couple of friends who were exercised about the utter irrationality of some of the religious types they knew. They just couldn't "get" what religious belief and affiliation was giving these folks.

After reading BREAKING THE SPELL I felt I "got it." Religion is a "natural phenomena." Irrational belief structures make sense in the right context. And it's the context Daniel Dennett provides, the most important aspect of which is how our brains are put together. (Be sure to read Stephen Pinker's HOW THE BRAIN WORKS too.)

So despite the fact Dennett gets thrown in with the most radical of religion attackers, I believe BREAKING THE SPELL comes across with a far more compassionate approach.

I believe, too, that accepting why human brains "naturally" create folk and organized religions is a better platform for curtailing the many and obvious problems with religion -- especially the institutionalized lack of compassion for others -- than outright antipathy.

I've already sent copies to friends who've been deeply hurt by religion, especially American fundamentalist "Christianity." It's been healing for them.

Dr. Kirtland C Peterson

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Save the world

This is a book that should be read more than once. The best way to read it is the way one would read a college text, pencil in hand for underlining. Most of us tuck our reading around our other daily duties, and this is a problem with this book. Because we must set it down and pick it up, it should have a glossary. All the new terms are clearly explained, but, because so many are new, it is hard to hold them in our memories while we walk the dog, entertain guests, etc. One of the main points of the book is that, even if we are 100 percent certain that our own religion is correct, it is our duty to try to discover why most others in the world don't agree with us. The author believes we should study all religions carefully. He points out that some have toxic elements and offers the hope that members of these religions weed them out before we pass on even more toxic elements to the next generation. For this reason, he dislikes the taboo that causes us to keep from criticizing religion. For instance, it is clearly toxic to say it is okay to kill innocent people simply because you are appalled by their lifestyles (as happened to us on 9/11.) And, it is clearly toxic to do things that will help bring about "end times" and destroy the earth upon which others depend. Professor Dennett suggests studying why religion seems to be irrelevant to moral behavior. In other words, why do our prisons have roughly the same religions as the rest of society? Why is the moral behavior of atheists as good as those of religious people? National security and the future of humanity depend upon our quest for answers. The only disappointing thing about this book is that it provides more questions than answers. But it is obvious we must start this discussion before the world is destroyed by people whose minds are closed even to the questions.

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Dennet is right!

Of course religion evolved, just as everything else. We need to make sure evil religion is stopped. Religion automatically produces dogma, it freezes your knowledge down and puts your mind in chains. Religion itself is toxic for the progress of society.

Often tedious but sometimes fascinating

This is a fascinating 200 page book trapped inside of a tedious 400 page tome. Dennett begins by offering some compelling possible analogies to religion, both positive and negative, and also quite a few interesting quotes. The material seems to get pretty thin rather quickly in the early going though, and I counted no less than four instances of Dennett saying "this is what this book is going to be about". Yeah, so get to the point already! His stated intentions of not wanting to bring down religion but instead open the religious up to the idea of scientific inquiry is not quite convincing. We ALREADY know what science thinks of religion, and Dennett himself is known to be quite hostile to even the notion of the "Prime Mover" of deism, to say nothing of the specialized God of Christianity. So he sort of comes off as a snake oil salesman with his analogy that maybe when the religious let go of that branch on the cliff, maybe they'll find that their feet are only inches from the ground.

The heart of the book is Dennett's "theory sketch" for a possible natural history of religions, mostly based on the science of self-propagating memes. This was by far the most engaging part of the book and I wish Dennett had actually made this the subject of an entire volume without the dishonest pretentions of trying to find common ground between science and religion that are present here.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

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